Jennifer Mastalerz of Philly Compost and Tim Bennett of Bennett Compost presented this at ILSR's Cultivating Community Composting forum.

1. Composting Business
Collaboration
Opportunities

2. Philly Compost / Compost Coop History
• Founded in 2011
• Compost Coop – Community, drop off, membership based
program. On-site processing in Earth Tubs. Currently 87
members
• Philly Compost – Neighborhood scale, commercial
collections via electric assist tricycle. Off-site processing by
third party. Started in 2013 to sustain the community
program. Currently 17 commercial customers.
• Site located in dense, residential neighborhood owned by
neighborhood association.
“Community Composter”

3. Philly Compost / Compost Coop
“Community Composter”

4. Philly Compost / Compost Coop
“Community Composter”

5. Bennett Compost History
• Founded in 2009. Started composting material in
community gardens
• Weekly collections from 1600+ households and 40
businesses throughout Philadelphia
• Combination of on-site processing using aerated
static piles and 3rd party collaboration with farm
• 4 full time employees, 5 part time employees
• Over 1,000,000 lbs of material collected in 2016
• Small vans and pick-ups
“Commercial/Residential Compost Hauler
and Processor”

6. Bennett Compost
“Commercial/Residential Compost Hauler and Processor”

7. Bennett Compost
“Commercial/Residential Compost Hauler and Processor”

8. Collaboration History
2010-2014 – Jen and Tim both working in the Philadelphia compost world and meet at events periodically.
2011 – Jen starts community composting program while working for other larger business
2014 – After the business Jen worked for goes under, Jen reaches out to Tim about meeting semi regularly just to talk shop.
2016:
April - Discussions about collaboration makes sense when Jen is able to increase collection capacity after receiving a grant
which allows her to purchase an electric assist tricycle.
July - Jen starts subcontracting with Tim to collect organics for customers in her neighborhood, 115 pickups weekly.
September – Jen loses employee, struggles with workload and brings up the idea to Tim about working together in a more
official way.
October through December - Discussions about partnership continue and after many, many iterations an agreement is made.
February 1st – Official partnership begins!

9. Collaboration Details
Jen will continue to manage and grow Philly Compost, but under the umbrella and as an employee of
Bennett Compost.
Jen will be paid to try and grow other routes similar to Philly Compost’s current route along other dense,
neighborhood corridors in the city.
The Compost Coop will become it’s own entity (non-profit…maybe a worker owned cooperative in the
future!) and incorporate more compost education
Bennett Compost will support the Compost Coop
as needed
Bennett Compost will be doing the processing
of commercial material from Philly Compost
instead of larger, third party hauler keeping it more
localized.

11. Collaboration Hurdles
• Pushback from other business partner
about pedal collections
•Making sure Philly Compost business
model was a good fit
•Making sure we weren’t biting off more
than we can chew
• Fear of giving up my business and
loosing control of what I’ve built
• Fear of selling out to a “big business”

12. Collaboration Benefits
• Additional customers and expertise
• Ability to manage continued growth easily
• Increased community visibility and
marketing
•Increased connection to the community
• Ability to collaborate and work with
someone on a regular basis
• Expansion opportunities
• Shared resources – insurance,
equipment, staff, outreach ability
• Security

13. Future Opportunities
Share resources and knowledge to work together on larger opportunities
More pedal collections along other dense, neighborhood corridors
Experiment with different types of compost technology and systems
Helping others to set up neighborhood scale programs like the Compost
Coop in other neighborhoods across the city that focus on education
Create more higher quality, full time jobs
Check back next year….